Friday, August 26, 2016

In those years
preceding the evolution of spying in Kenya, intelligence gathering was a
Herculean task. Human rights activists had field days pitting the government
against its citizens for infringement on right to privacy and human rights
violations. Terrorists committed attacks in the country every other day and
walked free. Security forces were accused of arbitrary arrests and torture of
suspects. Prevention of Terrorism and Security Act (POTSA), which gave security
agencies discretionary powers, was shot down like an enemy plane in courts. War
on terror was lost before it even began.

That’s when we
decided to use other methods.

I was the head
of the secret Defence Action Team (DAT) that was tasked to secure the country by
all means. First, we hired human rights and political activists to make noise
about the city state-of-the-art surveillance system installed by the country’s
telecommunications giant, Safaricom. The idea was to get the courts to outlaw
it so as to assuage the public who were made to believe the system was
murdering their right to privacy. Once that was achieved, we perfected the plausibly
deniable National Intelligence Service (NIS) stealth surveillance system that
the whistleblowing website, WikiLeaks, had exposed giving us unfettered access
to people’s information, ability to infect and monitor computers and
smartphones, intercept private communication, bring down websites deemed
offensive to the government, and monitor people’s movement.

We managed to
foil many terror attacks, but the terrorists and their facilitators and
sympathizers knew this when, for three years, all their attacks were thwarted
during the planning stage. They reverted to the time-tested human intelligence
techniques: no use of electronic gadgets, and use of couriers and cut-outs.

They planned
the greatest terror attack in the country in 2020—an attack on the President
during Madarak Day celebrations at Uhuru Park. One of the presidential escort
cars, laden with explosives, ploughed into the dais while the President was
giving his speech. The First Family was obliterated, cabinet secretaries,
diplomats, dignitaries, military command, and two visiting presidents were
killed. Death toll was 713.

That attack
awoke the country from its apathy. All security agencies were to make Kenya
safe at any cost.

I contacted the
US Army Defence Advanced Research and Development Agency (DARPA) director: “We’re
not winning war on terror in Kenya because of our constitution; rights
activists are using it to undermine our efforts, and the courts let the suspects
and perpetrators go free because of constitutional rights. We want another
approach…”

“How do you
want us to help?”

“We want to use
your insect drones for intelligence gathering…”

“We’re not
having this conversation.”

“We’re on a
secure network.”

“I don’t know
what you’re talking about…”

“Director, we
may not have your level of technological capability to spy on our foreign allies,
but this we know. You have been working on micro-drones that mimic insect
behaviour for long. We are on the same team here, Director, and my country is
burning. We cannot have another terror attack…”

There was a
long pause over the transatlantic distance before he said, “On one
condition—this conversation never took place…”

“Of course.”

“What do you
need?”

I spelt out
what I wanted.

The Kenya
Defence Forces’ Research and Development (R&D) Department together with DAT
embarked on a super-spy program, Project
Mwewe. Using the DARPA prototype micro-drone that they had been working on
for years, we made our own full robotic surveillance insects.

We made
mosquitoes, bees, and houseflies. All the insects were enhanced versions of
what DARPA had made, with improved aerodynamics, electromagnetic pulse weapons
system, miniature cameras, communications systems, energy source, and
microchips to help them navigate on their own and make tactical decisions to
take down targets of opportunity.

The insects
were dispatched in various regions: mosquitoes in the vast North Eastern
Province and Somalia, bees to Eastern and Coast, and houseflies in Nairobi,
Nakuru, Eldoret and Kisumu.

Later on, we
made butterflies. We were on top of the game. We were safe. The spy insects photographed,
recorded, and even attacked insurgents and terrorists.

This led to the
government being accused of secretly developing robotic insect spies in when the
majority of the Kenyan public reported that there were houseflies and
mosquitoes not dying when crashed with the hand or slapped away. Well, as
usual, the government denied existence of anything like that.

The terrorists
wanted to re-establish the Caliphate in the world, using every shade of dogma.
Their jihadism caused death, extermination of civilization. The activists
talking of infringement on right to privacy didn’t see the other side of the
coin, that we had a war to win, terrorists to stop, and the insects—bees and
butterflies—helped pollinate crops. Moreover, we had long withdrawn our troops
from Somalia, families were happy together without the battlefield deaths that
were everyday occurrence ever since the KDF went to Somalia.

As the DAT
pioneer, I wanted to fight for my country, murder the dastard terrorists. I did
not have to worry of one of our operatives getting caught and spilling their
guts out under torture about our plans.